Limits
by AyLee Cambell
Summary: Parker's and Eliot's inner musings about Nate and the team. Happens after the Snow Job, so slight spoilers.


Title: Limits  
Author: AyLee Cambell  
Rating: G/PG  
Pairing: No pairing, but Eliot's and Parker's thoughts  
Warnings/Summary: Little bit of spoilers for The Snow Job. Parker's and Eliot's thoughts/musings on Nate and the team.  
Disclaimer: I don't own them.

Just something I though up.

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His dad had been a good man once.

Used to take him and his younger brother out hunting and camping and used to teach them things.

Like how to throw a football, or how to pitch a ball, or how to charm a girl. He used to show up to their sport games or school functions. He used to do a lot, be a lot.

He used to work five days a week and take pride in his job and family. He used to care.

Used to be a good man.

Then their mom started getting sick. Real sick, stay in the hospital and hire a nurse to take care of her sick.

That's when the drinking started.

After their mom died it got worse.

The yelling started than, the drinking until passed out. The anger and hate, than the beatings. The man they had once called dad was no longer there or even recognizable. He screamed, he hit, and he just didn't care. At first he was sorry but the deeper he got into the bottle he just stopped being sorry and got madder, got meaner.

Soon Eliot was making sure his old man focused on him when he got angry, just so his little brother didn't have to go through it. He made sure that his dad forgot he even had another son sometimes, and listened to him rant about his failure and took each blow just so his younger brother didn't have to.

He made sure that his brother was out of the house often, took care of him and watched out for him since their mother wasn't around to do it. Made sure that he joined sports or some kind of activity just so he was out of the house and while he was there Eliot worked for Willy on his horse farm. It was hard work sometimes but hard wasn't something Eliot balked at so he didn't complain and he did his job. Sometimes he did the other workers job's just so he could stay longer.

He didn't join the Army until his brother was away at college, but since he was only a year younger than him it wasn't like he had to stay that long at home, even though every moment trapped there felt like a little piece of hell. It was worth it to him if he could protect someone else from going through it.

Then he left and the Army was hard and what he saw was even worse. Then when he got out he didn't know what to do with himself. He couldn't go back home, and his brother didn't need him anymore. So he did what he did best and made a living off of it. But he stayed by himself cause people were unreliable. They break, and when they break they try to take others with them, try to cause others pain. He didn't need that. He didn't need anyone.

Then he pulled a job with the others. First time really working with other people, instead of just for them. It felt okay, nice even. Though Nate seemed to be a little into alcohol he didn't abuse it, not like his father had. But it still made him weary and he tried saying something a couple of times but he left it alone. Nate wasn't his father, wouldn't break in the same way.

But it just seemed to be getting worse lately, and now he was watching a strong good mad break. He was watching a man destroy himself. A man he respected, sometimes.

He didn't want to watch this, didn't want to go through this again. Wasn't going to let someone else put him through this, wasn't going to stick around to be dragged down. If things didn't start shaping up he was out of there.

If there was one thing he disliked more than guns, it was drunks.

You couldn't trust either of them.

* * *

They were using her money.

Nate had spent or given away all of his. Hardison had built his ultimate computer room and done who knows what else. Sophie bought her retirement places and shoes, and clothes. Eliot, well he refused to tell them but he'd done something with most of his money.

She was the only one that had it all in the bank, that didn't want to spend it to buy something that wouldn't last or would have to be left behind in a hurry.

No one understood why she didn't want to buy things. Things broke, things got stolen. You couldn't keep something forever and buying things meant stuff that had to be left when you moved on. Going back or getting attached to something meant you ran the risk of getting caught. There were too many risks and variables with buying things.

Besides, you bought things you wanted, and doing that shows other people what can hurt you or get to you. It was a weakness she didn't want to have. So she didn't. The only thing that had never disappointed her in life was money. She could only benefit from it and the more of it she had the more secure she was. She bought food, shelter, and clothing from her money but she didn't waste it.

So when the others asked her to put up more money than them because she had more she didn't like it. She had more to risk, more to loose, and she didn't like someone else in control of her money. Even if the rest of it was safely put away. Reluctantly she had agreed after they all tried convincing her.

So when Nate seemed so caviler about throwing away money she got angry, more than just angry. It wasn't his money to give away but he didn't seem to care. No one seemed to care that she was so upset over it, no one seemed to get what it had meant for her to hand over any amount of money.

It had meant that she trusted them, that she was willing to take a risk on them.

And look where it had gotten her.

They didn't understand, but they didn't have to anymore. They no longer had her trust, not like they had before. Nate was drinking himself out of his mind and Sophie would sink with him because she had feelings for him. Hardison would stick around for awhile just because he thought they were all a family, but she wasn't so sure about Eliot. She was pretty sure he was reaching his limit too. She had a feeling that they would probably walk at the same time. Nate was sinking, and Eliot and her were the only ones who would jump off the ship fast enough, too used to others trying to pull them down, to stay and see how everyone got out at the end of it.

So, pretty much, they were reaching a limit. Things could go either way at the moment but as soon as the line was crossed she would be done. Sophie, Nate, and Hardison didn't seem to get that they were close to a turning point. Well, maybe Sophie noticed but she didn't know how close they were.

She hated putting herself out there and getting nothing back, and they didn't seem to realize that's exactly what she had done. Things had worked out this time, but next time she wasn't sure she'd stick around to finish the job. Next time might be the time she cut her losses. She only trusted very few people in this world and now it was getting to be even fewer.

For someone to whom money meant everything they just weren't getting what it meant when she shared some of it, and that hurt her. Then Nate had abused that by just giving it away and risking it on a plan he just thought up. He figured it didn't matter since he was the one in charge and they had gone to him. But it did matter and she didn't like getting hurt, even if they couldn't understand her or the reasoning behind it or the why she was still hurt and that pissed her off.

So she was watching now, watching very carefully. If all of them, that included her too, couldn't get it together and be a real team, if they started to sink because one of them couldn't handle it, couldn't get themselves together, than she was done. She would be out of there so fast they'd be wondering how did she do that for a good long time.

After all, she wouldn't be around for them to ask.

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